MOUNTAIN WEST IS WHAT IT IS, BUT AT LEAST FOR NOW IT’S STABLE

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. 
At a five-star resort snug between a mountain and a lake, where the greenery overtakes every other color and silence is the predominant sound, the presidents of the schools that make up the new-and-old-is-new Mountain West Conference convened this week.

The peaceful surroundings were the perfect setting for a meeting that in a sense was post-apocalyptic, as well as an implicit celebration of survival.

“For the first time in five years,” Colorado State President Tony Frank said, “we don’t have to have a discussion about membership, and I couldn’t be happier about that.”

A short while later, San Diego State President Elliot Hirshman, wearing an SDSU ball cap, spoke of a new tone.

“Very, very positive, very thoughtful,” Hirshman said of the series of meetings here. “An appreciation for what the conference has been through, the challenges, and I think some real excitement about the future. … There is a stability in the current structure, and that’s what I think you’re seeing reflected in the way people are interacting with each other at this meeting. We’re discussing substantive issues beyond who’s going to be in our conference.”

There is certainly a sense of this alliance having risen from the ashes. No doubt, the Mountain West is stronger now than 12 months ago, or even six months ago.

To recap the past few years:

Brigham Young left the MW to be an independent in football and join the West Coast Conference in other sports, Utah left for the Pac-12. Boise State joined the Mountain West. TCU departed for the Big 12. San Diego State and Boise State were set to leave for the Big East before that conference imploded amid mass pillaging and defections. SDSU and Boise returned.

Now the conference is comprised of 12 football-playing schools. Nevada and Fresno State came over from the Western Athletic Conference last year, Utah State and San Jose State this year. Hawaii has joined as a football-only member.

“It’s back to the future,” said Craig Thompson, the only man to ever hold the office of MW commissioner.

The back being that Hawaii, Fresno State and San Jose State were members of the WAC when San Diego State and eight other schools left to form the Mountain West in 1999. The future being that the Mountain West (and other mid-major conferences) conceivably has a better chance to partake in some of the big football money now that there are just five “automatic qualifying conferences,” and the rest will vie annually to have their best team in one of the top bowls.

The Mountain West also has a new contract with CBS Sports Network and is back on ESPN, which gives the conference teams slightly more revenue and immeasurably more exposure.

“Unquestionably we’re in a better position now given everything that has transpired with the changes,” Hirshman said. “If you look at the constellation of teams in the Mountain West, you look at the competitive level the teams are playing at, you look at the resource base and the exposure based on the renegotiated TV deal, you’re seeing a lot of positive developments.”

But, still, there is no escaping the fact that the Mountain West is still merely what it is. It is a collection of a dozen schools located in eight of the country’s 11 westernmost states, most located outside population centers and with little media traction. It is, in the grand scheme of college athletics, a second-tier conference.

“Being a realist … if anyone in this room was called by (the Big 12 or Pac-12) tomorrow, they’re going to leave,” said the devoted but pragmatic Thompson. “That’s just reality, that’s common sense. … But I’m not fearful, I’m not losing sleep that that phone call is coming.”

Indeed, the conference waters appear to have settled.

There was no rainbow. (The only color seen was the green of money.) So we don’t know another storm won’t someday again wash away decades of tradition.

But, for now, Thompson and the rest seem justified in their confidence that the Mountain West is finally stable.